


Teachers

by marikunin



Series: Sehnsucht [12]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Canon Autistic Character, Canon Character of Color, Canon Disabled Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-17 04:56:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9306038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marikunin/pseuds/marikunin
Summary: Mary's bending teachers in each element.





	1. Water

 

Mary smiled up at her new waterbending teacher. Chris Larson was an immigrant from Ghana who had recently become a U.S. citizen. He was also a master waterbender willing to take on both her and her sister Sheila as students. Their parents had paid for the two of them to get private lessons. Mary saw Chris on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after school, while Sheila saw him on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

As it was a Monday, the eight year old had her first lesson. "Just show me what you can do." Mary approached the small kiddie pool filled with water. There were cute yellow ducks along the side of it. As the young girl began to bend, Chris began making a mental checklist in his head. She could stream the water, change water to snow and ice and vice versa, had basic water manipulation down, and possessed the ability to heal. (Mary had placed her hands in the water, and a small cut on her right hand faded into nothing.)

However, she had no idea how to heal on purpose, and couldn't even do a water whip which was one of the most basic waterbending moves, no matter the style.

"That's it," the girl said, bending the water off of her small hands, "Did I do good?"

Chris smiled and nodded; the child reminded him of his own daughter when she was Mary's age. He knelt down to her eye level and began manipulating the water with simple motions.

"You have a lot of potential. But you need to master your basics..."


	2. Earth

"So, to start Mary...do you know any earthbending? Anything at all?"

The teen's eyes darted to the floor then back to the pretty chinese woman standing across from her.

"Um...a little bit..."

She was a bit nervous.

"Alright, then show me what you can do."

Mary stood in a room where the floor was dirt. Rocks of varying sizes were scattered about. The room was about half the size of the gymnasium at school. Her dad, sisters, and two White Lotus people sat on the seats at one side of the room, while her new earthbending teacher Lisa Chin stood nearby in green exercise clothes.

Mary felt the moist dirt between her bare toes. She scrunched them, and saw, briefly, a fat earthworm burrowing its underneath the soil. She wondered if Lisa knew there were worms in her school.

Mary frowned then knelt to sink her hands into the dirt. She could feel several dozen of said worms and even a few beetles. The room was silent as the young Avatar focused her energy before suddenly yanking her hands up towards her face.

The soil shifted, and suddenly all the worms and beetles were on the surface. The little things were probably confused, Mary thought as her sisters made noises of disgust and her father laughed. Lisa was covering her mouth but Mary still saw her smiling.

"Well, that was...something! But why not put these animals back where they belong. Can you do that?"

Mary hesitated. This move she hadn't quite figured out...

"Um..."

"It's alright," Lisa said, "Watch me."

She dropped into a classic earthbending stance, the kind Mary saw in old kung fu movies. Lisa held her hand out before forcefully shoving it down into a fist. The worms and beetles went back underground.

"Do you know anything else?"

"Not really. I mean, I can get dirt off my shoes but I can do that by smacking them together too..."

"No, its fine. The fact you know to feel the earth is a great starting point! Lets start from there..."


	3. Fire

"Do you know any firebending?"

Mary frowned as she scratched her arm. She had just moved to the Hudson Valley where her cousins and aunt from her mother's side lived. Despite living with two firebending cousins, neither could teach her as one was a neonatal nurse and the other was still in high school.

"Firebending...well..."

She held out a hand and opened it. A tiny flame appeared, flickering briefly before sputtering out.

"I can heat up food and myself when its cold, though..."

"Hmm."

The mexican american woman who was to be her firebending teacher put a hand to her chin, rubbing it in thought.

"I see we have a lot of work to do. But don't worry," Jessica said, her accent showing in her voice, "It'll be one step at a time. Since you breathe heavily, your firebending will be a bit...harder to come by but that's okay too. We'll work on your breath control and reserves. It'll help for when you learn airbending too."

"Okay..."


	4. Air

Finally, she was done with firebending training. Before Mary stood Ahmed Singh, her new airbending teacher. He had pale blue circles on his forehead and going down his arms and legs. He also had a turban that matched his yellow and white workout clothes.

"Do you know any airbending?"

"Um, just stuff I've seen in Disney movies mostly...and some anime."

Ahmed chuckled.

"That's fine."

The only Disney princess that was an airbender (so far) was Snow White. Sure, Kida from Atlantis was a (fictional) Avatar, but she didn't really do much of pure airbending in the film. Plus she wasn't even an official Disney princess. As for anime, Naruto was an airbender and Sailor Uranus was one as well. Usagi was an Air Avatar in the show, where Avatar Deepak lived a few more decades.

She remembered one of Sailor Moon's signature moves, where she used a mix of airbending and sailor power to defeat the monster of the day. Muttering the blond's introductory speech under her breath, Mary began copying the moves she'd known since childhood. Making sure to face away from her teacher and the two White Lotus representatives, she spun and posed as a gust of wind caused all the windchimes on the far wall to begin rustling.

"Good job! Now I'm going to break down what you just did..."


	5. Spirit

Mary sat down across from her spiritual teacher. All four elements had been taught to her. Now she had to learn about the past Avatars, the spirits, and mastering the Avatar State. Unlike the elements, spiritual matters only ever took the Avatar less than a year to learn. She suppose it was due to the spiritual foundation one had to take in for each element.

The White Lotus knew to match the current Avatar with a spiritual teacher that matches their own religious beliefs, or lack of them. Therefore, Mary was to be taught by a fellow Christian. They were originally from Syria, but immigrated at age three with their parents and older brother and became a United States citizen. They even served as a military chaplain before being honorably discharged.

"My name is Therthia Rahel Elacha Gadi, but you can simply call me Therthia."

"And you can call me Mary."

Therthia half smiled at that, and a warmth filled Mary's insides. She had learned that she enjoyed making people smile. It was why she wanted to go into entertainment and religion. Yknow, when she wasn't doing Avatar business.

"Do you have any experiences with spirits or the Spirit World?"

"I've been having...uh...Avatar-y dreams since October 2013...and as for my faith I was raised Christian."

"Avatar-y dreams?"

Mary grinned sheepishly, rubbing her arms as Therthia quirked an eyebrow.

"I know its not an actual word but...its the only one I could think of."

"That's alright; can you describe any of them to me?"

Mary paused. She had dreams just about every night. There were so many, and yet only a small fraction actually had to do with spirits and the Spirit World.

"...I've seen Heaven. I've seen Hell. I've seen versions of myself in other timelines and with different roles, I've seen the people that live on planets far away from this one. But I only ever dreamt of the Spirit World itself once or twice."

"Wow. Well, first of all we need to get you to the Spirit World. And not when you're asleep, but when you're awake."

"Okay...how do I do that?"

Therthia smiled.

"That's why I'm here."


End file.
